The Greens announce their target of dropping rents prices by 20% in 2 years
The Greens in Council would set a target to push down rents by 20% over the next 2 years.
A 20% rent cut would undo just one year of obscene growth in median rents, returning to March 2023 levels. Within the last 4-year Council term, including the lull around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, median rents have shot up by around 50%.
The Greens are the only party actually calling for rents to fall.
A goal of cutting rents will help everyone. It will make life easier for renters, and will also take pressure off land values, making it easier to build new homes.
The Greens have already announced several policies to put downward pressure on rents and house prices: a levy on investment properties being left empty with no good reason, a crackdown on short-stay accommodation in dwellings that otherwise could be long-term rentals, an effective rent freeze, and building Council housing directly.
Comments attributable to Greens candidate for Mayor, Jonathan Sriranganathan:
“If you’re struggling to pay the rent, worried about skipping meals or having to move house, you have a clear choice this council election: Labor and the LNP are happy for rents to keep rising, while the Greens are committed to making rents cheaper.”
“The suffering and disruption that unlimited rent increases are causing in our communities must stop.”
“If politicians say they want affordable housing but they don't want rents to fall, then they don't actually want affordable housing.
“Hundreds of people are already having to sleep rough across Brisbane, and thousands of renters are on the brink of homelessness, because the rent is just too high.”
“When parents are skipping meals just so that they can pay rent and feed their kids, we need drastic change.”
Comments attributable to Greens Councillor for the Gabba Ward, Trina Massey:
“Rents in Brissie have gone bloody bonkers, and they’ll get a lot worse unless we act.”
“Residents in the Gabba Ward and all over Brisbane are uprooting their lives, disconnecting from their communities, having kids move from their schools and friends, just because LNP and Labor politicians won’t stand up to rich investors.”
“Thousands of renters have been priced out of the area, and thousands more are on the brink of following them. We need to cut the rent.”
“In just this past year, hundreds more people have had to start sleeping in tents in parks across Kurilpa, because the rent is just too high. We need rents to drop, so that people can get back into stable, secure housing.”
“As the only renter in Council, I know how obscene rents are right now. They have got to drop.”
Further background details of the Greens housing plan:
- A plan to cut rents will make it easier for everybody to afford housing across Brisbane, by making housing a less attractive investment. This will drop the number of investors competing with potential first home-buyers, and thus reduce the upward pressure on land values. This in turn will make it cheaper for new housing to be built. It will allow for dwellings to be constructed at a lower cost - both publicly and privately owned.
- The Greens have put out a series of initiatives around housing at jonathansri.com/housing, including:
- A vacancy levy,
- A crackdown on short-stay accommodation using dwellings that could be used for long-term rentals,
- A rent freeze, and
- Building Council housing
- The Greens have also put out a series of initiatives focused on making it cheaper to live in Brisbane at jonathansri.com/priorities, including:
- Active and public transport at jonathansri.com/saferstreets, and jonathansri.com/transport,
- Making Council swimming pools free to enter at jonathansri.com/swimming, and
- Banning development on flood plains to (among other things) reduce insurance premiums for owners at jonathansri.com/flooding
